Tears, Moataz Nasr, 2004

For the IX edition of Arte all’Arte, the curators Achille Bonito Oliva and James Putnam invited Moataz Nasr to create the crystal artwork Tears in Siena.

“The installation sites are the enclosed space of a church and the open space of a spring. In the Church of Sant’Agostino, the Egyptian artist creates an installation—crystal tears descending from the ceiling to form small transparent puddles, a visual metaphor for a cosmic weeping that embraces the entire world, marked by great suffering, conflict, and misery. Not only are people crying, but sacred places are as well. Miraculously, the tears fall from above, at the center of the church, representing the transparency of a sorrow caused by religious wars that turn sacred places into targets of ruin and destruction.

Moataz Nasr was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1961, later settling in Cairo where he lives and works. Over the past two years, he has rapidly gained recognition on the international contemporary art scene, becoming one of the most representative and compelling artists to emerge from the Egyptian context. Awarded in 2002 at the Dakar Biennale and featured in the 52nd Venice Biennale in the Smottamenti section, Nasr has recently exhibited at the 26th São Paulo Biennale.

His work preferably combines the use of simple expressive elements and traditional materials from the Arab world with multimedia techniques such as video or digital processing, which are never used in isolation but always articulated within a context.

“Generally, I try to work on ideas that touch the public, on works they can identify with, rather than on works in front of which people face a mystery they cannot understand or digest. For this reason, any medium is suitable for any idea, if the artist uses it in the right way, if they know its qualities and natural strength.” Through a deep sensitivity, Nasr always develops in his works a refined combination of political or social concerns, references to the folk wisdom of sayings and proverbs, and sudden poetic openings full of emotion. “I seek the point where the influences coming from the external world meet deep interiority, becoming my own necessities.”

Arte all’Arte IX, 2004